Faculty Development

The following sessions are offered multiple times per semester. If you see a session you would like to attend but can't find a time that works within your schedule, we are available to set-up a one-on-one session. Please call us at 706-507-8699 or e-mail us at onlinelearning@columbusstate.edu to schedule a session with one of our trainers or instructional designers.

The COOL SPOT

The COOL SPOT (Smart Personal Online course Time) is an open lab for current faculty teaching or developing online courses. Our training lab will be available for faculty to come and work on their courses, get help, and commune with other faculty teaching online. During this time you can come to just get away from your office to have a quiet place to work on your course, or get help with just about anything including, but not limited to, CougarVIEW tools, course design, and instructional media development. There is no need to sign up, just come when is convenient for you and stay as long as you'd like. We will have COOL staff on hand to help you design your course, provide training on a specific tool, or troubleshoot course issues.

Instructional Design

Copyright for Online Course Materials

Join us for this online Webinar provided by Academic Impressions to examine a framework from for establishing who owns the rights in online courses. This session will cover updates for 2016 including resolved and pending court cases that directly impact the application of copyright laws to your online courses.

Online Teaching Circles

We will be offering a series of Online Teaching Circles this spring covering the topics of Instructional Media Development, Engaging Learners in the Online Environment, and Best Practices in Online Teaching. These sessions will be in a roundtable format where we will discuss challenges, solutions, and best practices on the session topic. We encourage participants to bring challenges and obstacles they have encountered in their courses as wells as ideas they have implemented in their courses to share with other participants.

Refresh Your Peer Reviewer Skills

Participants will look at the Quality Matters Peer Review process, focusing on the Quality Matters Rubric, to include: standards, alignment, and scoring. Participants will gain experience in reading the Course Worksheet, writing helpful recommendations, and using annotations to support decisions in scoring the rubric. There will also include an activity to practice skills such as spotting alignment and writing helpful recommendations.

Rock This! Course Design and Planning

Do you dream of building a course that screams, Born to be Wild, but usually end up with one that is Runnin' with the Devil? This session will give you a Peaceful, Easy Feeling, as we demonstrate strategies to help you plan your course to effectively reach desired instructional goals regardless of your course size, subject matter or level. In today's classrooms, You Gotta Fight for Your Right to Party, so in this session, participants will look at: determining how you will measure student learning outcomes, and planning activities, assignments, and materials that support student learning and align with course objectives. A solid understanding of good course design provides structure for any new or revised content, and allows you to focus on the key factors: understanding who your students are and deciding what you want them to learn. So bring your Zippo lighters, and get ready to Rock and Roll all Night and Party Every Day!!

Instructional Technology

Create Engaging Content Using Camtasia Studio

Camtasia Studio 8 software by TechSmith allows you to create engaging video content by enabling you to record, edit, produce and share contents. There are many reasons you may want to incorporate videos into your course such as engaging student with customized presentations, flipping your classroom, or allowing students to watch lecture outside class time. This 1-hour hands-on workshop will focus on how you can create engaging video content for your course.

Introduction to Blackboard Collaborate

Blackboard Collaborate/Online Room is a web conferencing tool added to CougarVIEW that will allow you to hold live and interactive presentations & classroom sessions with your students, or record them for later playback. The tool allows for voice and video communication, sharing of applications, files, websites and desktop, private and public chatting, breakout rooms, and guest participation.

Introduction to Camtasia Studio

Camtasia Studio 8 by TechSmith is a software in the Microsoft Office windows environment that allows you to record, edit, produce and share instructional and training videos. There are many reasons you may want to incorporate videos into your course such as engaging students with customized presentations or flipping your classroom and allowing students to watch the lecture outside class of the class.

Increase Student Engagement Using Virtual Office Hours

Virtual office hours can give you as well as your students more flexible options to get assistance and feedback. In a fully online environment this can give you an opportunity to build some community with your students. This 1-hour hands-on workshop will focus on how you can incorporate virtual office hours into your course.

Save Time with the CougarVIEW Grade Book!

Whether you grade on straight points, weight by percentage or use your own formula, learn how to put the CougarVIEW grade book to work to save you time and release grade information more quickly to your students. The Grades tool allows you to enter assignment grades, track a student's progress, calculate final grades, as well as set up a grade scheme. You can link grade items to activities in CougarVIEW such as assignments, assessments, and discussions. Or you can simply create a grade item for your face-to-face activities. Students can access the grade book to see all their grades in one place. This hands-on workshop aims to demystify the CougarVIEW grade book and to provide practical guidance and useful tips for mastering it.

Engage Your Students with Online Discussions

Discussion boards are one of the most commonly used tools in online teaching. Discussion forums provide the ability for asynchronous discussion to occur over a period of time. The ability to learn asynchronously is one of the primary benefits of online learning. Discussions can be an excellent strategy for enhancing student motivation, fostering intellectual agility, and sharing opinions.

This 1-hour hands-on workshop will focus on how you can create and use discussions effectively to engage your students.

Engage Your Learners with Multimedia in CougarVIEW

Are you currently using multimedia in your course? Or would you like to start? Come learn about the new functionality that we are implementing this fall to better support the use of media in CougarVIEW. You will have your own media space that can be managed directly from CougarVIEW. It also includes recording and editing tools that can be used by students and instructors to seamlessly post in content, news, email, discussions, dropbox, and quizzes.